


Agony Of An Empress

by TheFoolsYouSee



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Dark, F/F, Future, Gen, tragic ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:14:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27451057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFoolsYouSee/pseuds/TheFoolsYouSee
Summary: Fifteen years after first arriving on the Boiling Isles, Luz leads a rebellion against the despotic rule of a new regime. But she and the Empress have a past that's hard to reconcile.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Comments: 127
Kudos: 171





	1. Chapter 1

Moonlight shone down on the deserted marketplace, making the wet cobblestones glisten. They were still steaming; it had not been long since the last few droplets of boiling rain fell. This was what the inhabitants of the Isles called a Scalp’s Minute, the period of time to wait after the rainfall before going outside again. Leave the safety of your home too soon, and you might get caught in an aftershower.

It was a risk Luz was having to take.

She darted from shadow to shadow, her dark cloak masking her frame and her face. She made sure not to step in any puddles - melted boot soles would be the least of her problems if someone heard the splash of her feet.

A noise.

She froze in a dark spot behind an abandoned market stall and listened. There were voices coming from up ahead, right at the junction she needed to cross. It was the fastest path, and she couldn’t take the chance of doubling back on herself. She crept forward and, after passing a few more stalls, started to hear the voices more clearly – two were deep and gruff, one was small and squeaky.

‘Please, I’m an old demon, no threat to anyone!’ the squeaky voice squeaked.

‘Then you have no reason to lie to us,' one of the gruff ones retorted. 'Where are you going?’

Luz ducked behind a low wall, peering over it as far as she dared. Two guards, one about a head taller than the other, were stood before a loaded cart blocking her view of its driver.

‘I told you, I’m going to the sea.’

‘Don’t try it with us Grimhammer, there’s nothing down there! I recognise you, I know how many scams you’ve pulled in your day.’

The taller guard who’d spoken pointed an accusing finger at his victim, allowing Luz a glimpse under his arm. She recognised the small pig-like demon sat in the cart’s front seat, his round spectacles shaking on his snout. Luz remembered when that face had been as smooth and sly as its owner. Now, fifteen years since they’d first met, it was weathered and wrinkled.

‘That was a long time ago!’ he trembled. ‘I swear, I’m just an honest merchant looking to take my services where there are those to purchase them.’

‘And fleeing through a bout of boiling rain?’ The shorter guard leaned towards him threateningly. ‘Seems more desperate than that to me.’

Luz glanced around; there wasn’t enough cover to be able to sneak past. Despite their difference in height, the two guards were both beefy, and what dim light there was in the street shone off the metal armour that was showing from under their Imperial-white cowls.

The human woman sighed. She’d better make this quick.

She vaulted over the wall, making the pig-demon point and squeal.

‘Look! Look, it’s her!’

The two guards turned, their hooked-nosed masks pointing expressionlessly at the woman stood before them. Luz grasped the hilt of her sword and pulled it out of its sheath, holding it out sideways with the flat of the blade facing her. A gust of wind whipped her hood back, revealing her tan face and short brown hair, but she left it down. There was no point hiding now.

The shorter guard tilted his head curiously.

‘Wait… is that a human?’ He laughed and slapped the small demon on the cart roughly on the back. ‘What are you so afraid of? They can’t even do magic!’

But the taller guard hadn’t taken his mask off Luz. He gestured at his colleague, almost apologetically.

‘He’s new,’ he said.

Luz nodded. ‘I can tell.’

She pressed her thumb down onto a dial on the hilt of her sword and twisted it. A cog with a small mechanical arm attached slid along the central fuller of the blade, past a number of different glyphs engraved in the metal. It settled alongside the one that Luz had chosen and she released her thumb; the cog’s mechanical arm sprung forward and slammed onto the aligned glyph.

The blade burst into flames.

The short guard jumped back with a clank, surprised. He glanced at his partner, and they both grabbed maces from their belts and charged forward.

Luz waited for them to reach her, then ducked under their swings and swept her leg out – the shorter guard tripped over it and crashed to the floor. Luz brought her flaming sword up to block the second swing of the taller guard, and the blade connected with the metal handle of his mace. She strained against him, clutching the hilt of her sword with both hands, but her leg buckled and she dropped to one knee. The human kept her eyes on the spot where her weapon met his, waiting for her chance. A burning heat on her cheek warned that her sword was being pushed closer and closer to her face…

Finally, she saw the glow in the metal, and span the sword’s dial with her thumb again. The flames disappeared from the blade, which had sunk into the melting handle of her opponent’s weapon. She sliced it forward with a yell of effort, and the guard toppled over as the weapon he’d been putting all his weight on broke in two. Luz used her momentum to roll away from him, then sprang to her feet again as she heard an enraged cry to her side.

The shorter guard had recovered and was charging again, swinging wildly. Luz quickly picked another position on the dial, and the cog slid to a different glyph. She brought the sword up defensively and a golden, translucent barrier swept out from both edges of the blade, forming a shield. The first blow knocked the sword back, and she had to swing up again to meet the second. She was being backed toward a tent that covered one of the market stalls, and spotted that the canopy of its entrance was drooping under a heavy weight. She quickly ducked under it.

Both guards stalked up to the tent and faced her together. Luz kept her shield-sword up, but didn’t move from under the canopy.

The taller guard looked down at the two halves of his mace in each hand. He threw them both to the ground, and slammed a heavy fist into his palm. Both of them leapt at her.

Luz kicked at one of the wooden poles holding up the tent's entrance flap and made a dive to the side. The canopy entrance collapsed, and the pool of still-steaming water that had collected on its top gushed down onto the guards. It wasn’t as boiling as when it had been raining from the sky earlier, but it was still hot enough to make them cry out in pain as it went through the gaps in their armour.

Desperately trying to remove their masks, they stumbled away down the street and out of sight.

Luz watched them go, panting. She twisted the dial on her sword back to the default position and the magical shield disappeared. She sheathed her weapon and turned back to the cart.

‘You’d better get out of here, Tibbles. They’ll be back with more soon.’

The pig-demon poked his head out from under an upturned crate in the back of the cart and looked around, his snout twitching. Once he was confident they were alone, he started clambering back to his seat at the front, muttering to himself.

‘Guards harassing people on every corner, vigilantes fighting in the streets… I can’t wait to get away from this place.’

‘It won’t be any different in the other towns,’ Luz picked up a couple of glass flasks from the ground and replaced them in his cart. ‘Where are you trying to get to?’

Tibbles landed in his seat and straightened his waistcoat. ‘You heard what I told them. The sea.’

Luz frowned. Studying the contents of the cart, she spotted a long, thick pole with a large folded sheet attached to it.

‘You’re not trying to leave the Isles?’ she asked, surprised. ‘There’s nothing out there.’

‘There have always been rumours of other islands to the north. It’ll be nice to have fresh customers.’

‘Rumours aren’t much to go on.’

Tibbles shrugged. ‘Any rumour is better than here. If this Empress of yours is going to keep such an iron grip, I’d prefer to find somewhere where the grip is lighter.’

Luz glanced down. ‘She’s not my Empress.’

‘She was once.’

Luz looked back up at Tibbles with surprise. He was giving her an almost accusing look, and then clapped his hands together twice.

The front of his cart lifted magically up off the ground and it rolled forward down the road. Luz watched him go for a moment, then she pulled her hood back up and continued on her way through the night.

* * *

Lilith could remember when she had been head of the most prestigious coven on the Boiling Isles. Her rooms in the castle had been immaculate, and her clothes woven from the finest materials. These days she barely noticed the scratchy feel of coarse fabrics on her skin, but right now she was looking for something soft.

Her pale hands ran over each item of clothing that she picked from the pile, placing it neatly aside when she’d finished her examination. She held one garment up to get an idea of its size. _Yes_ , she thought. _This would do perfectly_. Folding it up, she brought it with her out through the curtain into the school hall.

Families of humans were spread out across the floor, sat among their meagre possessions. There was some chatter, but the overall volume was low. Lilith walked across the hall, taking care to step over any items or limbs that lay in her path. Her eyes swept the faces in the room, looking for the one she’d seen earlier, and spotted it near a corner. The young girl was now in the arms of her mother, but was still shivering. Lilith made her way over to them and knelt down.

‘Hello,’ she said softly. ‘I thought you might like this.’ She held the garment out to the girl, who looked up with nervous, wide eyes and clutched her mother’s arm. The mother, however, took it with a grateful smile.

‘Thank you,’ she said as she pulled it over the head of her child, who was still giving Lilith a wary look. The witch tucked her dark blue hair behind her long pointed ears and wiggled them with a smile. The girl broke out into a laugh, which brought Lilith a warmth she’d never felt in her old life.

She glanced around and spotted Camila bent over an older man who was lying on a makeshift bed made out of school desks. Lilith gave the mother she was with a farewell touch on the arm and headed over to their medical expert. The tan-skinned human had just finished with her patient and was walking away when Lilith reached her.

‘How are we doing?’ the taller woman asked.

‘Our medical supplies are nearly gone,’ Camila replied, looking around the room with tired eyes. ‘If people start getting sick again, then we’ll have to isolate them.’

Lilith nodded. ‘We can set up quarantine zones in some of the classrooms.’

‘What about you? Do you have enough of your elixir?’

'Yes, I can brew more any time I need it.'

‘Well, if you start to feel different, come to me. I don’t know as much about magic curses as I do about medicine, but I might be able to help.’

‘Thank you, Camila.’ Lilith could remember when the human’s hair had been brown; the years living among the distressing strangeness of the Boiling Isles had turned it fully grey, even before things had gotten this bad. She also noted the bags under Camila’s eyes, but knew the other woman would brush off any suggestion of rest for herself. The fact that there were still thirty families here was a testament to her hard work.

The sound of the double doors opening echoed around the hall. The pair turned and saw Luz entering, sweeping her cloak’s hood back from over her head. Lilith thought back to the girl she had first met, who always seemed to be at the extreme of one emotion or another. This woman was much more composed, as well as several inches taller, although her ever-short brown hair still stuck up in any direction it liked.

‘Mija!’ Camila ran past Lilith toward her daughter. Lilith allowed them a hug and a minute together before going over.

‘What did you see?’ she asked as she reached them.

‘Same patrols as normal,’ Luz kept an affectionate hand on her mother’s back as she reported. ‘If they’ve not reallocated anyone, then he’s probably being guarded by the higher ranks.’

Lilith’s brow creased. ‘That makes things more difficult. Without a change in patrols, we won’t be able to go with a quiet infiltration. I suppose that will make Edalyn happy.’

Luz didn’t respond; she was staring at something across the hall. Lilith turned and followed her gaze toward the same child she had just been sat with, who was now reading a book with her mother. The faded blue hood of her new garment was now pulled up over her head - it had the ears of an animal of some kind poking out of the top as decoration.

Camila looked over too. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘I suppose that must have ended up in the pile.’

‘Yeah.’ A sad expression briefly came over Luz's face, before she shook it off and looked back to her mother. ‘Mami, por favor, duerme un poco _._ ’

Camila shrugged Luz’s arm off her. ‘I'll sleep when you stop going out getting into fights with people who want to kill you. _That’s_ when I’ll sleep.’

Lilith coughed awkwardly. ‘I’ll let the others know,’ she said, before leaving the mother and daughter to continue their conversation in private.

She walked back across the hall, taking in the faces of those huddled inside it. She recognised many from the first days when humans had started to visit the Boiling Isles. Back then they had seemed shocked by the strangest things, but also fascinated. In the months that followed those first visits, some had started to settle among the demon inhabitants who had been mostly bemused by the newcomers but welcoming enough. But as the presence of human ideas and technology spread, enthusiasm grew for passage in the other direction, and witch envoys had been sent to broach the possibility.

Four days later, their bodies were brought back and the portals were all shut down. Rumours abounded as to how the envoys had died – assassination, a declaration of war, a scuffle with locals that had gone wrong. One tale held that they had been burned on a stake. 

Lilith made her way to one of the old Abomination labs in the lower depths of Hexside. The burning scent that came from the room hit her nose several meters from the door, and when she opened it she had to shield her eyes from the sparks.

‘Edalyn!’ she called out, and the sparks stopped. Lilith lowered her arm and saw Eda lift up the thick welding mask that had been covering her face.

‘Oh, hi.’ Lilith’s sister laid her tool down on the workbench she was sat at and pulled the mask fully off her head. She called out across the lab. ‘King! Willow! We’ve got an update!’

There were many things Lilith had gotten used to over the last few years, but seeing Eda without the great, unruly mane of hair she’d had since they were children was always disconcerting. Right now she was brushing bits of dust out from the remaining grey stubble on her scalp; having to adapt from using magic to using human machinery had led to a couple of hair-related accidents, so Eda had decided to shave it all off. She now wore a tool belt as a sash with various pouches full of the things she used to keep in her hair, which had been a system that had always mystified the older sister. But Eda seemed to rather enjoy her new style, and Lilith had recently caught her doodling those old logo designs she used to do, now with her updated look.

Lilith waited until the small furry demon and stocky, bespectacled witch appeared from around the side of Eda’s machine. King wiped his dirty paws on his tiny mechanic’s smock; Lilith promised herself she would take a picture of him when he wasn’t looking.

‘Is Luz back?’ Willow asked.

Lilith nodded. ‘We’ll have to go with a frontal assault.’

Willow gave King a worried look, but Eda lifted her arms victoriously.

‘Finally!’ she crowed. ‘I get the chance to actually use this thing in action.’

‘This is still extremely risky,’ Lilith realised she had steepled her fingers in the way she’d used to when lecturing one of her protégés, and quickly placed her hands behind her back. ‘We’ll be sending in our best fighters to rescue one person.’

‘We’re not going to leave Gus in there,’ Willow declared. Her nervous expression had gone and she met Lilith’s eyes firmly.

‘Yes, I know,’ Lilith nodded. ‘I just hope we don’t lose anyone else on the way.’

‘Don’t worry Lily,’ Eda leant back in her chair and folded her arms cockily. ‘I’ll be ready to go. I’ve been practising out on the Grudgby field.’

‘Yeah, when it _works_.’ King chimed in.

‘It’ll work as long as _you_ get those pistons pumping!’ Eda threw a rag at King, who pulled it off his exposed skull, sighed, and crawled back under the machine.

Eda stood and gave her sister a firm slap on the arm. ‘We’ll be fine. Things can only look up, right?’

She went over to tinker with some other part of the contraption, and Lilith watched her work.

‘Right…’ she replied, quietly.


	2. Chapter 2

Warden Baal stomped down the steps toward the dungeon tunnel. Each guard he passed stood to attention and rapped the bottom of their spears on the floor in salute as he went by. It made him feel good. They all wore hooked, grey masks, but _his_ mask was gold. That made him feel good too.

He made his way down the tunnel and approached the cell at the end. Two more guards were stood in front of the door, their masks silver. So what? His mask was gold.

The guards stood aside as Baal reached the cell. Lifting a ring of keys from his belt, he picked out the heaviest one and unlocked the door. It opened with a whine and he stepped in.

The man inside the cell was strapped to a chair in the middle of the room. Baal had strapped him to the chair at the end of his last visit. _Doesn’t look so smug now_ , he thought.

The Warden swung the door shut behind him with a heavy clang. The prisoner didn’t flinch, which made Baal angry. He bent his hulking frame over so that his face was at the same level as the brown one in front of him.

‘Where are the humans?’ he growled.

‘What’s a human?’ Gus asked.

Baal slammed his fist onto the floor, and the whole cell shook. It showed how big and strong and scary he was. So why had it made the _stupid little man_ smile through his _stupid little beard_?

‘You will tell me where the humans are, or I will kill you.’

‘If you kill me, then you won’t have anyone to tell you where the humans are,’ Gus smirked. ‘And the Empress won’t like that. She might even take away your lovely shiny mask.’

Baal snarled. He kept coming in with a plan to get the prisoner to talk, but then the prisoner kept saying the wrong things. He stood and took a breath, trying to remember what the Empress had told him about… “suttle tea”.

‘You are my prisoner. You will stay here until you tell me what I want to know. If you don’t tell me where the humans are, then you will stay here forever.’

Gus shook his head. ‘Nah, I can get out whenever I want.’

 _That’s stupid. He’s strapped to a chair_. ‘No you can’t. You’re strapped to a chair.’

‘No I’m not, look,’ Gus nodded to the door, but Baal didn’t turn around. He wouldn’t fall for any tricks this time.

‘Uhh… sir?’ The voice of one of the silver-masked guards came from outside of the cell. Baal turned and looked through the small grated window in the door. At the other end of the tunnel was…

Gus. He was waving Baal’s ring of keys in the air.

Baal looked back at the chair – it was empty.

He roared with fury, flung the door open and charged down the corridor. Gus darted round the corner, but Baal sped round after him. He wasn’t going to let his prisoner out of his sight.

He chased him round the bends of the dungeon tunnel, having to gouge the stone walls with his mighty hands to turn quickly enough. Eventually one of the bends led to a dead end, where Gus turned to face his pursuer.

Baal grinned to himself under his mask. The prisoner had tried to escape. The Empress would understand. As he stepped forward, his eyes landed on the ring of keys that Gus was still holding. Something seemed strange about them. They didn’t look heavy, they looked… _wispy_.

Gus lifted up the fading keys, studying at them with exaggerated curiosity as they disappeared entirely. Then _he_ started to look wispy, and gave Baal a shrug as the hand that had been holding the keys also vanished, followed by the rest of him.

Baal looked down at his waist. His keys were still on his belt.

He started to hear howling laughter coming from back down the tunnel, and a seething, humiliated rage rose inside him.

He stalked back to the cell, and saw the straps on the supposedly empty chair twitch. Gus re-appeared inside them, laughing and laughing and laughing. Baal bent down again and glared straight into his prisoner’s eyes.

‘Your illusions are useless. You’re still trapped here.’

‘Yeah, and I’m really starting to enjoy it,’ Gus took a deep breath, finished with his laughter. ‘Feels so _good_ to use magic again. Can’t track me if I’m already captured.’

Baal grabbed the back of the chair, the wood splintering in his furiously tight grip.

‘Warden!’

The gold-masked hulk of a demon snapped his head round at the interruption; a grey-masked guard had run up to the cell door.

‘We’ve captured a human trying to get through the gates,’ they panted.

Baal turned slowly back to Gus, whose smile had faltered. Humans were much less difficult to scare. It might only be a few minutes before he didn’t need _this_ prisoner anymore…

‘Bring them here,’ he commanded.

‘But sir, it’s her! It’s Luz Noceda!’

Luz Noceda. The one human every Imperial knew the name of, and knew what they had to do when they caught her. None of this was going how Baal wanted. He gave one final, infuriated growl before fully turning to the newcomer.

‘Take her to the Empress.’

The guard saluted and ran back up the tunnel. Baal followed, slamming the cell door shut behind him. The guards still stood to attention as he went back up the steps to the castle, but he could feel a different look coming from under their masks this time. It didn’t make him feel good.

* * *

Luz remembered visiting the castle for the first time many years ago, and the corridors still seemed just as high and wide as they had then. She was being marched along by a squadron of guards, one of them holding her sword, and they reached a tall set of doors which were pushed open by the leader of the procession. Luz took a deep breath as they entered; seeing your ex again was tough enough at the best of times.

The throne room no longer had the dark, ominous atmosphere of the Age of Belos; it was now well-lit by bright flames burning on various torches and lamps all along the walls, and great white banners hovered a few metres above the floor, reflecting the light further about the room. The guards escorting Luz stepped back to form a line blocking the doors, which swung closed. Luz stood exposed before the throne: right now it was empty, its regular occupant stood with a group of demons at a wide table set up in front of the throne’s platform.

Empress Amity Blight turned around at the sound of their entry, her brown hair now sweeping past her shoulders. Although the green she had once dyed it was long gone, Luz did notice that her white robes were decorated with emerald patterning here and there.

The Empress’ eyes widened when she saw who had come in. ‘Luz!’

Amity ran over from the huddle and flung her arms around the human. Taken aback, Luz instinctively half-raised her arms out, but didn’t quite return the hug. The Empress pulled back and took her captive’s face in her hands.

‘Are you okay? Are you hurt?’ she asked.

‘Y-yeah, I’m fine,’ Luz replied, confused. _What was happening?_ She realised she had put her own hand on top of the one being held against her cheek, just like she’d used to, and both women quickly took an awkward step back. Luz glanced over at the meeting she’d interrupted; there was a large map spread over the table with small models scattered across it. One model was much taller than the others. Amity followed her gaze and turned back to the group stood around the table.

‘We’ll continue this later,’ she declared. The demons bowed, and one rolled up the map as they filed out of the room.

There was a heavy pause.

‘…Do you need food? Fresh clothes?’

‘No, thank you.’ Luz was half-tempted to see if a hot bath was on the table, but thought better of it. The guard holding her sword stepped forward to present it to the Empress.

‘Titanbone,’ she identified as she studied the blade. ‘This must hold the magic pretty well. Have you given it a name?’

‘Yes.’ Luz watched Amity feel the balance of the sword that had been used on her own soldiers before returning it to the guard, who stepped back into formation with the others. They might as well be statues by how still they were, and how little Amity acknowledged them.

‘I hope you’ve not had to live in one of those camps,’ she said sympathetically.

‘I’ve not got much choice. You’re not letting humans settle anywhere these days.’

‘But…’ Amity was frowning, trying to get a handle on a long-gestating thought, and she took both of Luz’s hands in hers. ‘ _You_ belong here. I remember you telling me how different you used to feel in the human realm. Everything you’ve done, that you’ve helped me do... I thought we both understood that you’re not like them.’

Luz stared at her. It suddenly made a sickening sort of sense, how the Empress had been able to send raiding parties to human settlements while sleeping in the same bed as one. How confused and hurt she’d been when Luz had told her she couldn’t be part of her regime any longer. She’d never treated Luz like the other humans because in her mind Luz _wasn’t_ one.

‘Amity, if humans don’t belong here, then you know what you have to do. They want to go home.’

Amity sighed at the resurgence of their old argument and let Luz’s hands go, turning and walking up to her throne. ‘I can’t allow any more knowledge of the Boiling Isles to go back with them.’

‘Then there are memory charms! Everlasting oaths!' Luz followed her up to the bottom step of the throne's platform. 'Please, there are so many ways around this!’

Amity whipped the lower folds of her robes to the side as she took her seat. ‘I have to guarantee the safety of my subjects absolutely. This is the only way I can do that.’ The warmth that had been in those golden eyes a moment ago was gone; it had turned to steel. _But if those old feelings really are still there…_ Luz changed tack.

‘Do you remember when I first brought my mother here?’ she asked. ‘You were so nervous to meet her.’

A little thaw in Amity’s expression. ‘I tried to dress like a human,’ she smiled, embarrassed at the memory.

‘You looked adorable,’ Luz cringed internally at her own manipulation, but pressed on. ‘My mother never wanted to live here.’

Amity tensed again and looked away, the boot of her crossed leg tapping agitatedly against the air, but Luz continued.

‘She only stayed because of me. She never understood what I loved about this place, but she stayed. Because she wanted us to be a family.’

Amity sprang from her chair.

‘ _DON’T TALK TO ME ABOUT FAMILY!_ ’ she roared.

The Empress's words echoed around the room as she glared down from the throne’s platform, her breathing trembling with anger. Luz recognised that same blistering pain in her face, still as raw as when it had been slashed into her in the space of a moment, on the last day before all the portals to the human realm had been closed.

Amity put her palms to her forehead for a second and took a breath, composing herself. ‘Please, let's not do this. I don’t want to have to treat you like a prisoner.’

‘Well…’ Luz bit her lip apologetically. ‘I’m afraid I didn’t just come here to see you.’

Sad realisation crossed the Empress’s face. ‘You’re a diversion, aren’t you?’ she sighed, exasperated. ‘Your friends still won’t get in without using magic, and the second they do we’ll know where they-’

Amity paused. A distant hum was coming from outside the room, along with crashes and yells of surprise. Even the line of guards in front of the door were turning their heads; the noise was getting closer. In fact, it was getting closer _very quickly_ …

A large van smashed through the doors and into the throne room. The guards scattered, and as the vehicle sped past it knocked over the one holding Luz’s sword, which went flying.

The van swerved across the open space of the room before coming to a halt. It was covered in large sheets of dark fabric, the ones on the sides decorated with sewn-on patches of owls and big colourful letters that spelled out three words:

“BAD GIRL COVEN”.

Luz looked through the gap in the fabric that had been left over the windshield and saw Eda in the driver’s seat, looking a little dazed. She spotted Luz and gave her a delighted thumbs-up.

Luz glanced back at Amity, who had briefly frozen in shock. She took her chance and ran towards the spot on the floor where her weapon had slid to. She reached down and grabbed the _Third Act Closer_ by its hilt.

‘Stop them!’ Amity cried, and the guards picked themselves up and charged.

The van’s tyres screeched as they sped forward again, and Luz took a running leap as it passed. Her body slammed roughly into its side, winding her, but she managed to grab onto a rail sticking out of the roof. As the van drove on, she planted her feet against its side and looked back.

Amity had summoned a white staff from thin air and was aiming a bolt of purple lightning right at them.

Luz hammered her palm on the roof. ‘GO! GO! GO!’

‘YEAH, I’M GOING!’ Eda’s voice cried out from inside.

Luz gripped the van's rail with both hands as they turned back towards the doors. Amity’s magical bolt hit the van’s rear, but dissipated against the fabric that had been stretched across the back, which was embroidered with a large image of Eda making a rude gesture.

They launched back out of the room, and once they were barrelling down the straight of the castle corridor, Luz manoeuvred over to the open passenger window and squeezed herself in.

‘Good old Witch’s Wool!’ Eda was shouting triumphantly. ‘I’m starting to think that magic’s a sucker’s game.’

‘Did you drop them off?’ Luz asked.

‘Yeah, we should come back round to them just in time.’

‘When else?’ Luz looked back out of the window.

A guard was flying alongside them on a staff, raising a crossbow.

Luz quickly stuck her sword out of the window, twisting the dial to the shield glyph, and the magical field sprang out from the blade just as a heavy bolt slammed against it. Her arm was pushed back by the impact, but she managed to keep the sword up.

Eda glanced from their pursuer to the corridor ahead, and made a sharp turn. Luz saw the flying guard’s masked face follow them as he whipped past and crashed straight into a pillar.

The van skidded to a stop as it reached the entrance hall; the main doors to the castle were still hanging loosely open from when Eda had burst in through them. A line of guards were stood in formation in front of it, all pointing their staffs forward.

Luz met Eda’s gaze, nodded, and clambered into the back of the van. Eda’s hand played over the gearstick for a second. Then she yanked it back.

There was another great screech of tyres on the polished floor as Eda slammed down on the accelerator and the van reversed.

‘Take aim!’ one of the guards called out. The others lifted their staffs onto their shoulders.

Eda twisted the wheel and the van span around to zoom backwards towards the guards.

‘Fire!’

As the van screeched to a halt again, the momentum flung Luz out of the back doors. She plunged her sword into the ground in front of the guards, just as the blade was becoming encased in ice. The ice spread out lightning-fast, freezing the ground beneath the guard’s boots right as they fired the bolts from their staffs. Their feet suddenly sliding, the kickback from their own blasts topped them all over.

Luz had to flatten herself to the floor under the bolts as they launched towards the van; Eda swerved, and they fizzled harmlessly out on the wool covering. Luz switched the _Third Act Closer_ to its fire setting for a brief second, enough to allow her to yank it back out of the ice. The van sped past her towards the doors, the fallen guards desperately rolling themselves out of its path. Luz ran up to where it had stopped in the open doorway, sliding herself forward on the ice, and jumped in through the still-swinging back doors.

‘Yes!’ Eda crowed. ‘We’re just _that_ good!’ She kicked down on the pedals once more.

The van stalled and the engine died.

Eda’s fingers hovered over the controls. ‘Wait, wait I’ve got this... It’s that one, right?’

Through the open back doors, Luz could see the guards picking themselves up.

‘EDA!’

‘Okay, okay!’

Eda tried a different combination of levers and pedals and the engine revved back into life. The van lurched forward as more energy bolts followed after them, and the escapees sped out into the grounds that had been built over the chasm that used to surround the castle.

* * *

As soon as Warden Baal had heard the commotion, he’d gone straight back to Gus’s cell. There was no way he was letting the intruders near the prisoner.

The sounds coming from the castle above were loud and strange. One of the silver-masked guards had gone to investigate, but Baal had commanded the other one to remain with him. They were now both looking up at the stone ceiling, their masks moving across it in unison to track the location of the noise above them. Vibrations echoed down through the stone, as if coming from all around.

Except a vibration _was_ coming from around them – a separate one. Baal felt it move past him and spun around to look through the cell door’s window, just in time to see huge, thorned vines burst through its wall from the outside, ripping apart the stone. A stocky female witch wearing round glasses leapt through the gap and started working at the straps holding Gus, who had flinched away from the blast as much as he could in his chair. Baal grabbed his keys and plunged the right one into the lock.

As he and the remaining guard burst into the cell, the new witch threw out her hand towards the pair – one of the monstrous vines writhed towards them and wrapped itself around the silver-masked guard, slamming him against the wall. Another vine flung something towards Baal; something small and furry, with scrabbling claws.

‘FEEL MY WRATH!’ it cried.

Baal desperately tried to pull the skull-headed creature off his face as it clawed furiously at his mask, squirming out of his hands wherever he grasped it. He finally yanked it away and threw it out through the hole in the wall.

Gus had just been freed from the chair, and was jumping out of the same hole after the other witch, looking back to blow Baal a kiss as he did so. Baal ran to the hole in time to see them leap into the back of a covered cart of some kind, which sped away unnaturally fast.

He looked from the vanishing cart, to the large hole in the wall, to the unconscious guard still wrapped in vines.

To the empty chair in the centre of the room.

Baal folded his arms. ‘Nice try,’ he said to the chair, and planted himself firmly in front of it. That creature on his face had felt very real, but he was done being tricked. He’d wait for the prisoner to be finished with his game, for as long as it took.


	3. Chapter 3

Students filled Hexside’s school hall, dancing to the music of a band of instruments that were playing themselves on the stage. This year’s chosen Grom Queen had been a younger girl whose horns were still curling in around her temples. It turned out her greatest fear had been... being Grom Queen. When the shifting mass of Grometheus the Fearbringer had forced its way up into the pit, it had turned itself into a smaller replica of the school hall which contained ever-more miniscule replicas ad infinitum. Luz hadn’t been able to help laughing at the creature’s attempt, and had led the student’s supportive cheers for the girl as she had gigglingly stomped on their own tiny, screaming duplicates. The girl was now surrounded by admiring classmates and was laughing easily with them. As she watched her, Luz felt a pang of envy for everything these younger students would experience for the first time over the coming school years.

She felt a hand on her arm and smiled; Amity had come back from the Punch Bowl, and Luz was glad to see that the other girl was flexing her fingers rather than rubbing a black eye.

‘Makes me think of your first Grom,’ Amity said.

Luz nodded, adjusting the green pocket square that poked out of her date's tuxedo. ‘Only year with two monarchs, we’ll leave that legacy at least.’

‘Remember what my fear was?’

Luz widened her eyes in exaggerated shock, even as she slipped her hands under Amity’s jacket and around her waist. ‘Wait… do you mean all this time you’ve had a… _crush_ on me?!’

Amity laughed as Luz leant down and nuzzled her neck. They made their way onto the dance floor, the bottom of Luz’s dress sweeping aside a few discarded cups, and started swaying in each other’s arms.

‘What do you reckon your fear would be now?’ the green-haired girl asked.

Luz blew through her lips and shrugged at the question. ‘Bring the mood down why don’t you, Blight?’

Amity stuck her tongue out, but then rested her chin on Luz’s shoulder.

‘What would yours be?’ the human asked, sensing that Amity was waiting for permission to say what was on her mind.

‘This being over. I mean not _over_ , obviously. Not being together all the time now that we’re nearly done with school. We’ve already got different paths to go on.’

Luz nodded and turned her head to kiss Amity’s cheek. ‘It’s gonna be different. But we’ll make it through. And afterwards we can start thinking about becoming Mrs and Mrs Noceda-Blight.’

Amity pulled her head back and frowned at her. ‘I thought we were going alphabetically?’

‘Yeah. Did you not know the human alphabet starts with “N”?’

Luz grinned as Amity laughed, and other students joined them on the floor as a more upbeat song started to play. Hidden in the crowd, they danced through the night.

* * *

Eleven years after the last time she remembered people dancing in that same school hall, Luz sat on a bench watching everyone else enjoy themselves. Gus’s rescue had been the excuse the camp had needed for a party; the blankets and sleeping bags had all been cleared to the side and people were dancing to music that was blaring tinnily from someone’s portable speakers. Even Lilith was up amongst the others, the little girl wearing Luz’s old hoody dancing on the tall witch's feet. Gus himself was animatedly telling a story to a small group in the corner, his human partner on his arm smiling up at him. Seeing humans being able to find joy even in harsh adversity should have been inspiring, but Luz could only feel the numbness that had become her new normal, and thought back to what Amity had said to her; maybe she _wasn’t_ like them.

Eda came and sat down next to her on the bench, holding a cup of something. ‘Kid, you look miserable,’ she confirmed. Eda had refused to stop calling her old student “kid” throughout all her moody teenage years, and all her adult ones too. Luz would never admit how comforting she found it.

‘We’re celebrating tonight,’ she responded to the older, balder woman. ‘But tomorrow we’ll remember how bad things are.’

‘Well exactly,’ Eda shrugged. ‘What else are parties for? To help you forget, for a while.’

Luz looked at her old mentor’s pointed ears and her single, golden fang. She remembered the feeling of awe the inhuman features had inspired when she’d first laid eyes on them.

‘This place was used to be my dream,’ Luz said quietly. ‘But it’s gone so sour.’

Eda sighed and drained her cup, slamming it down on a discarded desk next to them. 'I’m off the clock for giving advice tonight, so I’m gonna charge you for this,’ she began as she turned to fully face her grown-up student. ‘The one thing you can count on in life is change. So yeah, good times don’t last forever, but the upside is that bad times never last forever either. You’ve either got to last long enough until that change happens or make it happen yourself, and remember to enjoy the happy moments when they come around.’

Luz looked into those wicked, mismatched eyes. She smiled, unable to remember the last time that had happened, and leant her head against Eda’s shoulder.

‘Thanks, Owl Lady.’

She felt Eda’s hand come around and rub her arm affectionately. After savouring the moment, Luz looked back up at her.

‘So what do I owe you?’

Eda winked. ‘Get your mom to dance with me.’

Luz nodded. ‘Deal.’ She stood up from the bench and went to join the others.

* * *

The next day, the coven members were gathered in a classroom. Luz was looking up at a map of the Boiling Isles which had been pinned over the blackboard, and ran her finger over it thoughtfully before settling on a specific point.

‘The biggest marker on the map I saw was here,’ she said.

‘The Knee…’ Willow turned to Lilith. ‘There’s been reports of some construction project going on up there.’

‘The Knee’s always been a site of powerful magic.’ Eda was leant back in a chair, her feet up on a desk. ‘If Amity’s planning something based there then we need to know about it.’

Lilith stroked her chin. ‘The magical interference in that area should block their tracking. But without knowing what’s up there, we should still wait until backup is available.’

‘I’ll get in contact with Viney and see how soon she can get to us.’ Luz said. ‘Then we can take staffs to go have a look.’

‘Great!’ Eda jumped to her feet. ‘It’s been too long since I’ve taken Owlbert for a ride.’

They all started to leave the classroom, but Lilith stopped Eda as she passed.

‘Edalyn, could I have a word?’

‘Sure, what’s up?’

Lilith waited until the last of their rebellion had left before sitting down on what was once the teacher’s desk. ‘I know you had to go on the operation yesterday, none of _us_ could have worked that thing. But you might have to fight your way out of this one.’

‘I’ll have Owlbert with me.’

‘Relying on a staff without your own magic is still a great disadvantage. Maybe I should go with you.’

‘No,’ Eda shook her head. ‘These people need you here. Your whole “ice queen with a melted heart” thing seems to be just what they need to feel safe.’

Lilith smiled bashfully, but then looked down. ‘I just don’t want you getting hurt.’

The other witch put her hand on her sister’s shoulder. ‘Look, we made a deal. If you tell me not to go, then I won’t. But I promise I’ll take care of myself.’

Lilith put her hand on top of Eda’s gratefully. ‘Okay.’

The two Clawthorne women pulled their hands back and broke eye contact, having reached their limit of emotional intimacy.

‘I’m still surprised you’re letting me give you orders,’ Lilith chuckled, trying to break the awkwardness.

‘Are you kidding?’ Eda laughed. ‘My prissy sister, head of the Bad Girl Coven? Rebelling against Imperial law? It’s my dream come true!’

Eda left the classroom, still snorting with laughter. Lilith watched her go, and hoped her feeling of protectiveness was unwarranted.

* * *

It was a couple of weeks before Luz had been able to arrange their backup, and as soon as it was in place they had flown up to the peak of the Knee. Luz sat with King on the staff behind Eda, the high whistle of the winds around them too loud for any conversation. Luz was reminded of all the times they had used to fly to school together; back then all she’d been able to see of her driver from behind was a tumbling mass of grey hair, but now she could see how Eda’s shoulders dipped and swerved with the staff as she steered it. Luz shivered in the wind-chill and glanced down at the mountain below.

There were iron buildings pockmarked across the snowy landscape; various barracks for the garrison, and a great factory billowing out black smoke from its chimneys. On occasion, green flashes of some kind burst out from the spaces between the buildings, and the party were now flying low enough that Luz could start to see dot-sized soldiers marching through the snow. There was no way of knowing exactly when the natural magical field of the Knee would cause enough interference, but it was time to either risk being tracked or risk being seen from below. Luz looked over at Gus, who was riding on the back of Willow's staff, and saw him spinning his two forefingers around each other.

A shimmer spread out a few feet below them as the invisibility shield came into place, and Eda and Willow took their staffs down lower. Luz squinted at the flashes of green as they approached and saw that they were geysers spurting up from small craters scattered around the mountainside, each one with a further circle of bare ground around it where the heat had melted the snow away. She spotted two guards struggling with a cart that had become stuck over one such crater, desperately pushing and shoving it without luck. The ground around them started to rumble, and they dropped the cart and ran for cover.

A sudden gush erupted from the crater with a mighty hiss, the state of the magical green energy somewhere between liquid and fire. The cart was blasted into charred pieces, which all flew up high and rained back down onto the surrounding area while the fountain of energy evaporated into vapour in the air with a crackle. As they flew past, Luz could see the cart’s debris lying in the snow, black and smoking.

They headed toward the factory, which had the highest concentration of soldiers patrolling the area at the front. The flying party circled around in a wide circumference to avoid the plumes of smoke, which were giving the air a poisonous taste. Luz saw that the back of the building was less well-defended, with only three guards sat around a fire. She nudged Eda and pointed down to the factory’s rear, and Eda nodded and signalled to Willow. They flew out a short distance past it and then arced round, sinking quickly to ground level as the invisibility shield dissipated.

When the speeding staffs were low enough they dropped off them into a run, King clutching to Eda’s shoulder, and by the time the guards looked up the the group were already upon them; Luz had brought up the magical shield on her sword and swung it hard against the nearest guard’s head while Eda blasted a sleep spell from her staff at another. Both their targets fell to the ground unconscious while Willow motioned with her hands, making a nearby tree bend down and ensnare the final guard in its top branches. Willow released her arms and the tree sprung back upright, catapulting the guard far across the mountain, his cry of surprise only sounding out when he was too far away to be heard by the other soldiers. All the while, the intruders didn’t stop running toward the factory.

They reached the back wall and flattened themselves against it, and after Luz was confident that they hadn’t raised the alarm she nodded to the others. They clambered onto the staffs again and they were raised up to look through a high window.

Inside was a long, wide space. Metal beams were piled up along one end of the room, some straight and some curved to varying degrees. Occasionally one from the top layer of the pile would rise up and slide through the air. A crew of witches were controlling the them from below, sweeping their arms towards the other end of the room where the floating beams were being sent to take their place in an unfinished structure. Luz gasped when she realised what it was.

It was a portal. The base was all that had been constructed so far, but it was unmistakable. Based on the angle at which the beams were curving out from the bottom, when the aperture was finished it would be bigger than any Luz had ever seen.

‘Is this it?’ Willow whispered. ‘Is she finally going to send the humans back?’

Luz shook her head. If Amity had been planning this, why wouldn’t she have told her when they were together in the throne room? It would have ended things there and then.

The sound of boots tramping through the snow came from round the corner of the factory. The party quickly dropped to the ground and ran over to where the unconscious guards were lying. They huddled together as Gus cast another illusion around them, this time projecting an image of the guards sat around the fire.

A troop of soldiers marched past them on a path that led further up the mountain. Luz peered through the figures and saw a glimpse of emerald moving amongst the white cowls.

Amity was walking in the middle of the troop, wrapped in green furs and holding a hovering flame in her hands to warm herself further. Luckily no-one in the procession looked over; Luz wasn’t sure if Gus could make his projections stand and salute the Empress while also keeping them hidden. They watched the small convoy march away.

‘If her nibs has turned up then there’s got to be something going on today,’ Eda said quietly. ‘We need to get more intel.’

Luz nodded. She noticed cables snaking down the path Amity and her soldiers had gone up, and followed their trail with her eyes. They led into the mouth of a cave.

‘Gus, Willow, you follow Amity and stay hidden,’ Luz instructed. ‘King, I need you to go find our backup to be ready to come in if things go wrong.’ She pointed to the cave. ‘Eda, you and me will go in there to see where those cables lead.’

King gave a little salute and scrambled off into the trees. Gus and Willow mounted the staff again, lifted up and shot off after the soldiers who had passed, turning invisible in the air. Luz and Eda crept along toward the cave mouth and ducked inside.

There were torches fixed to the walls of the cave, but they weren’t lit at the moment. Luz brought out her sword again and set the dial to the light glyph; it shone brightly, and she held it before them as they made their way down the tunnel.

The floor under their feet was a metal grate, and the cables swarmed along underneath it. Luz kept glancing down to check they didn’t make a turn anywhere but they continued straight ahead, and eventually the pair walked into a great cavern. The sound of liquid pumping came from all around and Luz directed her sword to shine its light over the space about them; set into the rock were large tubes which led into vats with soft green light glowing out from the tops, and the ends of the cables they’d been following were plugged into the large containers.

‘They’re taking energy directly from the mountain…’ Eda breathed. ‘Whatever they’ve got planned with that portal, it must need a lot of juice.’

‘Maybe we can find out more inside the factory.’ Luz went to go back down the tunnel, but stopped at the noise that began to sound out from the darkness.

It was a pair of high-pitched, maniacal cackles. And she recognised them.

The two women raised their weapons and stood back to back, their eyes darting about the cavern. The laughs were bouncing off the walls, making it impossible to tell where it they were coming from.

‘Luz, get out of here,’ Eda ordered.

‘Eda!’ Luz protested.

‘You know the rules. If two of us make a discovery, one has to bring it back to base.’

Luz looked up at the older witch, who was giving her a grin.

‘Besides,’ Eda said. ‘This might be the only chance I’m gonna get for some real fun.’

Luz put her hand on Eda’s arm briefly, then turned and started running back down the tunnel. As she glanced back, she saw the witch disappear into shadow as the sword’s light left the cavern. The human’s footsteps on the grate echoed as she ran, and she slowed as she reached the mouth of the cave. Pressing herself against the side of the wall, Luz glanced out to check that the coast was clear before hurrying out back toward the factory.

* * *

Eda stood with her staff held out defensively as the cackles continued to echo around her. She pointed her it up and blasted a shot of light into the air which spread out across the cavern’s ceiling, illuminating the whole space.

But a magical bolt came up from a shadowy corner and extinguished the glowing field, and the darkness returns.

‘Alright,’ Eda muttered to herself. ‘Guess we’re doing it your way.’

Her long ears twitched as she listened to the echoes bouncing off the walls. The cackles faded away, and she started to hear scrapings of feet against rock. She tilted her head, following the sounds about the room.

There was a sudden flash of red light as another bolt was hurled, this time at her. Eda leapt out of the way and the blast burst against the cavern wall behind her. More cackling sounded and she managed to track the voice, turning in time to see a smirking, three-eyed face briefly lit up by the glow of another bolt being fired at her. This time Eda quickly batted it back with her staff towards its source, but the figure had already disappeared.

‘You’ve gotten slow, Owl Lady,’ a voice called out mockingly. ‘Age finally catching up with you? Or is it that you can’t use magic without a crutch?’

Someone rushed past Eda and grabbed her staff, tugging it out of her grip. Eda snatched at it, but the figure had already taken it back into the shadow. Eda stood in the dark, defenceless, listening as the cackles and footsteps circled closer.

‘It was sweet for you to sacrifice yourself for the human. You must have known you couldn’t survive against two witches in their prime.’

Another flash of red – Eda dived away and crashed straight into the cavern wall, falling to the floor. She struggled to lift herself back up; _that one had hurt,_ she admitted silently, and managed to sit up against the wall as two points of light appeared in front of her.

Standing over Eda were the Empress’s two top minions past and present, both holding rippling fireballs in one hand. All three of Boscha’s eyes sneered down at the old woman, and Skara playfully spun Eda’s staff in her other hand.

‘So what are the chief Imperial Sorceresses doing up here that’s so important?’ Eda panted. ‘Besides mutilating an ancient magical site?’

‘Oh Eda,’ Boscha squatted down to meet her eye with a superior smile. ‘You’ll die never knowing. Right now, you’re as helpless as a human.’

Eda grinned suddenly. ‘That that’s not as low a bar as you think it is.’

She swung her fist towards Boscha’s confused face, the ice glyph carved in her Titanbone ring glistening in the dark.

There was a blue spark as the ring connected with Boscha’s jaw, hard. She was knocked back, screaming with fury and pain, and clutched at the ice-burn on her cheek.

Owlbert suddenly sprang from the top of Eda’s staff and the small owl swooped around Skara’s head, pecking at her. The dark-skinned witch tried to frantically bat him away and dropped the staff. Eda dived forward and grabbed it as it fell, and Owlbert quickly flew back to position himself at the top, melding himself back in with the wood. Eda glanced at Boscha, who was still lying where she had been knocked down.

‘That’s the thing about always being on top.’ Eda readied her staff again. ‘You never learn how to take a punch.’

Boscha snarled and launched another fireball at her, but Eda spun her staff around at speed and reflected the shot across the cavern.

‘My turn,’ she smirked.

Continuing to spin her staff, she fired a barrage of dozens of golden magical bolts all around the cavern. Boscha and Skara flattened themselves to the floor but the bolts flew over them, blasting into the vats and pipes. The hot green substance inside burst out of them over the cavern floor, and the two Sorceresses both leapt up and grabbed onto the cave walls with magically-summoned claws to avoid the swirling liquid.

Eda mounted her staff and flew away down the tunnel as the green wave sped after her, and she burst out of the mouth of the cave back into daylight just ahead of the torrent.


	4. Chapter 4

Luz crept along the factory corridor. All the activity seemed to be in the main part of the building where the portal base was being constructed. She was looking for an admin office of some kind, somewhere that would have records that could give a clue as to what they were using the energy from the Knee for. Her thoughts went back to Eda in the cave; she knew the witch could handle herself even when having to rely on her staff, having come up with enough magical gadgets for any eventuality. But part of the human still wished she’d stayed.

Luz heard footsteps approaching from around the corner and ducked through a door into a cupboard. She held her breath as the footsteps neared and stopped outside the cupboard door. Then she heard a sniff.

‘ _Truuhh…buurr_ …’ a voice rasped.

Sniffners. Luz mentally cursed to herself for not predicting they’d be patrolling a secret operation like this. Her lungs started burning for air, and she heard the sniffing outside get closer and closer to the door. She had no choice.

She burst out of the cupboard, knocking the Sniffner back with the door, and drew her sword as she spun around to face the creature.

It was crouched on all fours, its face an upside-down skull with bat-like ears sticking out from the sides of its head. Small slits sat between the sewn-over eyes, and Luz knew the thin nostrils led to a powerful olfactory system; the creature’s sense of smell would lock on to its target until it had been dealt with. She’d encountered the trouble-sniffing demons in her days attending Hexside, and doubted that the punishment this time would be detention.

The Sniffner lifted one hand off the ground to grab the crook that it had dropped. Then its skull started rotating around, and its body rotated in the opposite direction so that the face was still upside-down, the double-jointed arms and legs dislocating and popping themselves back into place as the crook was passed from hand to foot to hand. Luz grimaced at the disgusting sight and raised her sword out in front of her.

The Sniffner snarled and leapt forward, going under the sword to tackle her legs, and the weapon fell from Luz’s hand as she was knocked back onto the floor. Undefined limbs clambered over her body as the creature brought its face above hers, and she felt the force of its sniff on her face.

‘ _Truuhh…buurr_ …’

‘I try,’ Luz said, and desperately tried to recall a distant memory of a cheerleading training session from her human school.

She brought her knees to her chest under the creature, and with a strained cry kicked her feet up and over her head. The Sniffner was sent flying and Luz heard it land behind her. She scrambled up, spotted her sword a few metres away, and glanced back at her opponent - it was already crouching again, ready to leap at her. She knew if she turned and ran it would be on her again before she could reach her weapon. She raised her hands up and widened her stance, her eyes flicking around to look for anything close that she could wield. The Sniffner scampered forward and pounced. Luz grabbed to the side blindly and her hand closed around something. She swung it forward.

There was a crunch and a squeal of pain. The Sniffner scuttled away from her, one hand clutching its face. Luz looked down at what she had hit it with; there was a heavy iron hammer in her hands. The Sniffner glanced back and she saw a deep crack in its skull. It hissed at her before scurrying away.

Then a odd rushing sound suddenly came from outside the factory. Luz ran to a window and saw that a river of the same green substance that had been blasting from the geysers was now streaming out of the cave mouth. The soldiers outside were pointing up, and when she looked into the sky she saw Eda flying around on her staff.

‘So much for stealth,’ she muttered, picked up her sword, and ran back the way she’d come.

* * *

Gus and Willow heard the commotion from their position on the staff high above the mountain path. When they turned to look back at the complex, they saw the green wave sizzling on the ground around the cave, melting the snow away in an instant. Gus glanced down; the procession of guards escorting the Empress was continuing on, walking through a ravine which seemed to be shielding them from the sounds of destruction and panic. Gus gave Willow a questioning look, but she shook her head. Whatever was going on back there, this was their chance to uncover the Empress’s plans. They continued to follow her.

The ravine led to a lake in a wide open space, a great crater in the mountain. The lake swirled with viscous purple liquid, and all across it organic matter bobbed up to the surface and back under again. At the edge of the lake was a platform with two short poles stood up on either side, and the cables that the procession had been following ended at its base.

The Empress stepped forward to the lake’s edge, rolled up a sleeve, and dipped her whole forearm in the broth. She pulled it out, examined the dripping fluid before standing again. One of the soldiers came forward with a towel which she used to wipe her arm, and then she stepped onto the platform, raising her hands over the tops of the two poles. Another soldier took the two heavy, metal bracelets that were hanging from the tops of the poles and clipped them into place around Amity’s wrists. When he was finished, Amity bent her head, her whole body straining, and Gus saw the cables ripple along the ground as liquid pulsed through them.

The lake began to swirl more violently. Heads started to emerge, as if rising up from the liquid, but then Gus realised that the surface of the lake was sinking to reveal the figures underneath. The purple substance seemed to drain away until the dry bed of the lake was exposed, hundreds of Abominations now stood in rank and file across it, their purple humanoid forms rippling. The Imperial soldier unclipped the Empress from the bracelets and she stepped off the platform, stumbling slightly with fatigue. After she’d caught her breath, she walked down into the lake bed and inspected the first few rows of Abominations; judging by how they towered over her, Gus guessed that they must all be about ten feet tall.

Apparently satisfied, Amity turned and started walking back to the soldiers, gesturing to one of them. The soldier stepped forward holding a mechanical contraption which Gus recognised as a crude approximation of a human machine gun. Once the Empress was behind him the soldier fired a spray of bullets across the ranks of Abominations, the piercing sound echoing around the mountain. The purple shapes didn’t flinch; any holes made in them appeared to be immediately refilled. Dread filled Gus as he realised what this army was meant for.

Willow turned her head. ‘Gus!’ she hissed.

The dark-skinned witch looked down to see that in his shock he had let their invisibility shield down, and quickly spun his hands in the incantation to bring it up again. But the shimmer of the shield hiding them again made one of the soldiers look up. He pointed toward the space of empty sky where they’d been visible and the Empress followed his gaze.

‘Fly!’ Gus hissed to Willow.

She turned the staff around, just as Amity summoned her staff and fired a wide burst of purple energy toward them. It was too broad to dodge, and Willow flew up trying to outrun it. Gus felt a jolt as the wave hit them, and both witches lost their grip on the staff and dropped toward the trees. Willow frantically beckoned to the branches below, which reached out and grabbed hold of the two falling witches, lowering them gently to the ground. As his feet hit the snow, Gus heard the shouts of the soldiers running toward them through the trees, and more energy bolts flew past them.

‘Backup?’ Willow asked.

Gus nodded. ‘Backup.’

Willow ran over and picked up her staff from where it had fallen in the snow. She lifted it up and fired a glowing shot up above the trees, which exploded like a firework in the sky.

* * *

By the time Luz had made it back outside the factory the soldiers were firing shots up at Eda from their staffs. She raced toward the nearest and swung at him; the soldier brought his staff up horizontally as he spotted her coming, blocking her swing, and spun it round to also block her next two. A second soldier was still firing upwards, and Luz swiped at him as well. He dodged her, but now she had his attention.

As they sparred Luz quickly realised she couldn’t fend them both off for long - these weren’t simple town guards, they were the Empress’ top forces. But now that she’d given Eda some breathing room, maybe she could last long enough for the witch to-

Two glowing rings shot down from the sky around each soldier and they both collapsed to the floor, asleep. Eda lowered her staff to the ground next to Luz and hopped off it.

‘Still having fun?’ Luz asked.

‘Yeah,’ Eda cackled. ‘Let’s wake them up and go again.’

‘LUZ!’

They both turned; the other voice had come from further up the mountain. Amity was stood at the top of the path, her squadron of soldiers behind her. She made a gesture with her hand, and a wide, purple shimmer stretched out from above her over the buildings, a translucent ceiling over the whole complex. There was no flying up and away now.

Amity’s soldiers pointed their staffs forward and started rushing down.

‘Maybe you should try blinking those pretty brown eyes at her,’ Eda suggested as they turned and ran.

‘I think we’re past that now,’ Luz replied.

‘You sure? You’ve not got that old otter costume to hand, do you?’

A bolt fired up from amongst the trees bursting through the magical field, which quickly sealed itself again. The bolt exploded in the shape of their distress signal above the mountain.

Eda laughed again. ‘Start counting!’

Luz couldn’t help but grin back at her. Eda had put a brave face on being cooped up in Hexside, unable to do magic, and seemed very glad of the chance for a run out. But as they rounded the other side of the factory they saw another line of soldiers waiting for them. The two women quickly turned around, but their pursuers had caught up and the two groups formed a circle around them. Luz and Eda stood back-to-back, their weapons held out in front of them.

‘This is your last chance,’ Amity said, stepping through the circumference of soldiers. ‘I don’t want to hurt any of you, but you’re making yourselves my enemies.’

‘We know about the portal, Amity,’ Luz said. ‘What are you going to do with it?’

Amity was silent for a moment before she replied. ‘I’m going to enact justice,’ she said, her words pure ice. Then she softened again. ‘But you can be with me. If you both give up now, I’ll even let the other two go.’

‘Other _two_?’ Luz gave a performative frown to Eda. ‘Did she only say two?’

‘Yeah, I think she only said two,’ Eda replied with an equally-exaggerated look of confusion. ‘That’s weird, Empress of the Boiling Isles can’t even count?’

‘Well, I always had to help her with that stuff at school,’ Luz said, conspiratorially but loudly. ‘She was never a very good student.’

Amity’s face was now red with fury. Luz wondered if she could get her to actually stamp her foot. But then the Empress snapped her fingers and the circle started closing in on them.

‘That long enough?’ Luz asked quietly.

‘Guess we’ll find out.’ Eda fixed her eyes on the soldier directly in front of her and started twirling her staff.

Then a repetitive booming sounded out, the ground shaking in time with the noise rhythmically and with greater and greater intensity. The soldiers stopped and looked around, trying to find the source. Then the trees on the edge of the nearby thicket crashed down, and two huge Slitherbeasts bounded out, roaring from the toothy maws that were the only feature on their white furry heads. Sitting on the top of each beast holding the reins that wrapped around them were King and Viney, the tattooed woman laughing just as maniacally as the demon.

“WHO’S NOT AGGRESSIVE ENOUGH FOR THE GRUDGBY TEAM _NOW_ , AMITY?!” Viney screamed madly.

The Empress dived out of the way as Viney’s mount swiped a paw at her. The Slitherbeast carried on forward, sweeping aside a group of soldiers who had broken away from the circle. Luz looked back up the mountain and saw Willow and Gus speeding toward them on their staff, flying just below the magical barrier.

Eda called up to one of the white monsters. ‘King! Time to go!’

‘Five more minutes!’ the small demon yelled back as his mount batted a soldier into a tree.

Eda leapt onto her staff and Luz jumped on behind her. They flew up and Eda plucked a protesting King off his Slitherbeast as they passed whilst Luz signalled to Viney. The other woman saluted back before whistling loudly, and both Slitherbeasts turned and sped back into the trees.

Willow and Gus raced on ahead toward where the barrier above petered out over the mountain, and Eda tilted her staff forward to follow. Luz looked behind and saw Amity speeding after them.

‘Eda, she’s coming!’ she yelled over the wind.

Amity was catching up to them fast, and was now so close that Luz could see the rage in her eyes. With a crash, the Empress rammed into them and they all went flying, landing heavily in the snow.

Luz groaned as she raised her head, and saw Amity pointing her staff down at her.

‘Give up,’ she commanded.

‘It won’t help you,’ Luz glared up at her. ‘Whatever revenge you think you’ll get against innocent humans, it won’t stop the pain. And you know why.’

‘ _Shut up_ ,’ Amity hissed through gritted teeth. Luz slowly got to her feet, the point of the staff following her up, and fixed the Empress with a firm stare.

‘I can still see it in you,’ the human continued. ‘You’ve been lashing out because you could never face the thing that's burning you up inside. But you’ll never start to heal until you can admit it to yourself.’

‘SHUT UP!’ Amity shouted, but Luz knew that if there was any hope for the other, tormented woman, then she had to face this.

‘You’re the one who sent Edric and Emira to the human realm without enough training in our history,’ she said. ‘You knew they’d be flashy and try to impress people, and you didn’t listen to the ones who warned you what humans can do to people who are different from them.’

Amity’s eyes had widened in something like terror. Luz took a breath and finally gave the Empress’s agony a voice.

‘It’s your fault they were killed.’

There was pause, in which the whole mountain seemed still. Then Amity let out a primal scream and swung her staff into Luz’s head.

The human was knocked back to the floor again. Her skull throbbed from the blow, and she looked up to see the Empress, fangs bared, aiming a glowing purple bolt at her.

Just as she was about to fire, Eda tackled her, the bolt flying off to the side. The older witch tried to grab the staff, and the pair grappled over it. With a great cry of effort, Amity threw her off and shoved her away. Eda stumbled back and tripped over something, toppling to the ground. The Owl Lady shook her head as she sat up. Then her eyes widened in horror as she saw what she had tripped over.

She had fallen into the crater of one of the geysers. And the ground was rumbling.

Eda looked to her old apprentice and reached out a hand.

‘L-'

Green fiery energy blasted up from underneath Eda. For a second Luz could still see the witch’s silhouette in the flames. And then her shape crumbled away.

The geyser blast ended, and Eda was gone.

Luz was frozen for a moment. Then she felt all the blood rush out of her limbs and she fell to her knees.

‘ _Eda_ …’ she whispered.

She found herself crawling forward to the crater, putting her hands on its edge. The heat scalded her palms, but she couldn’t let go. Her eyes frantically scanned the space where Eda had been but there was only ash, and now tears were blurring her vision even of that.

She felt small paws grabbing at her arm. ‘Luz, come on,’ King’s voice sounded from beside her.

‘ _Eda_ …’ Luz gasped again.

‘I know, I know, but we have to go!’

Luz looked over at the small demon, and could see he was choking back tears of his own.

‘ _Please, Luz!_ ’ he cried.

Luz turned back to Amity and saw her standing motionless, just as much shock on her own face, hands still held out in front of her from the shove.

With monumental, excruciating effort, Luz forced what had just happened to one side and grabbed Eda’s staff from the ground. The palisman’s eyes blinked open as she and King mounted it.

‘Owlbert, we have to fly,’ Luz said.

But the tiny owl’s eyes were darting around looking all over, sensing that some connection had been broken.

‘Owlbert, _please_ , come on!’ Luz begged, her voice breaking.

Owlbert gave a small, confused hoot and kept looking around. Luz looked up and saw soldiers from the factory complex running towards them, getting closer. Gus and Willow had flown out away from the mountain past the edge of the magical barrier, and Luz could see them speeding back, but they’d be too late.

She grabbed King and put him on her back. ‘Hold on,’ she instructed.

The human held Eda’s staff in one hand, drew her sword in the other, and ran toward the cliff edge. She could feel King’s claws digging painfully through her clothes as she twisted her cold thumb over the sword’s dial, trying to move it to the glyph she needed in time. She fixed her eyes on Willow and Gus, and as her foot hit the edge of the mountain she flung herself out over the abyss.

She brought her sword up and released her thumb from the dial; the blade glowed green, and a vine shot out from its point. It stretched forward towards Willow’s staff, and just as the human was starting to feel herself fall the end of the vine wrapped itself around the staff’s tip.

Her weight made it jerk down, but Willow lifted them back up with a strained cry and turned to fly them away from the mountain. Luz swung in an arc below, and she gripped onto the sword with every bit of strength she could muster. Once she was dangling down again in the cold air, she glanced back at the mountain.

Amity was stood on the edge of the cliff, looking out at them. The two women watched each other shrink away across the chasm that now lay between them.

* * *

Camila was checking up on one of her frailer patients when she heard the doors to the school hall open. She turned around and saw Willow and Gus walk in, shock and pain on their faces; someone had been lost. Panic started to build in Camila’s chest, but it was replaced with sudden relief as her daughter followed them through the doors.

Luz looked hollow. It had been a long time since she’d had been her old smiley self, but now she seemed utterly empty. The returning trio’s eyes scanned the room and settled on Lilith, who had just looked up at them from a discussion with one of the families sat on the floor. Willow said something quietly to Luz, who nodded, seemingly in a daze. Willow started to make her way over to Lilith, and Luz spotted her mother.

The eye contact seemed to trigger the younger woman’s emotions, and suddenly Camila could recognise her daughter again from the days of scraped knees and school bullies as her face creased into a sob. The older woman ran across the hall and took her child in her arms.

‘NO!’

The shriek echoed off the walls, and Camila turned her head to see Lilith with her hands clasped to her mouth. Willow was stood with her, tears in her own eyes, telling her she was sorry. The surviving Clawthorne sister collapsed to her knees and started to wail, her hands clutching helplessly at Willow’s legs. Then there was another great burst of noise as a chair smashed to pieces against the wall where Gus had thrown it from where he'd been pacing agitatedly in a corner.

The rest of the hall fell utterly silent as they realised what had happened. The light of their camp, the woman who’d always had a joke and a smile in the darkest of times, who not long ago had pulled an embarrassed Camila onto this very floor and got her to relax and have fun for a night, who they’d all thought could survive anything, was gone. Eda was dead.


	5. Chapter 5

Willow quietly closed the door of the school hall on the sleeping human families. Gus had offered to keep watch over them, saying he’d be up all night anyway. Willow was pretty sure she would be too, but had spent the last few hours filling in Lilith’s duties and was grateful for the respite. Although as the silence of the corridor surrounded her, she realised that she’d been kept busy ever since coming back from the Knee. Now she had nothing to distract her.

‘Hey.’

Willow turned at the whisper and saw Viney stood a little further away. The other witch seemed to have just arrived, her Slitherbeast harness still hooked over her shoulders. Willow approached her.

‘Hey Viney.’

‘I heard.’

‘Yeah.’

The two had never been particularly close, but they hugged for a moment.

‘How’s Lilith?’ Viney asked as they pulled apart.

‘She left. I don’t know where she went, but I think she’ll be back.’

‘And Luz?’

Willow didn’t actually know which expression came over her face, but Viney seemed to understand and nodded. The tattooed woman exhaled, trying to avoid the swell of emotion, and glanced around the corridor.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve been back at Hexside. I wonder if…’

She ran a hand over the row of lockers that stood against the wallm and her fingers found a familiar divet. They pressed into it and a section swung open, a secret door set into the line of doors. Viney looked back at Willow with a small, cheeky smile before stepping through.

Willow followed into a tall, circular room. It could almost be a tower if she didn’t know there definitely wasn’t one in this part of the school. A ramp started at the floor and spiralled up all around the walls to the very top, and doors were haphazardly set into the stone at random angles all along the spiral.

‘We used to come here all the time.’

Viney was sat on the floor, leant against the wall. Willow came over and sat next to her as the other woman continued.

‘From the day I showed Emira this place, she would use it to find me wherever I was and try to get me to skip class with her. And I always would.’ She ran a finger over her brow to brush the bangs from her eyes before looking at Willow, her expression anxious.

‘Keep an eye on Luz,’ she said. ‘Grief can… it can change you, if you’re not careful.’

Willow looked down at Viney's hand. She’d never taken off her ring.

* * *

Luz was so tired. Her eyes were dry and red, unable to force out any more tears, and the classroom floor felt cold and hard beneath her blankets. She was lying in the arms of her mother, who had fallen asleep. King was nestled between the two of them, whimpering quietly. Luz knew it would be cruel to wake him; what nightmare could be worse than this? The time it had taken for the remainder of her world to fall apart had literally been a second. One moment Eda had been with her, saving her, then a burst of green and-

Luz sat up. She had to move, to do something to stop the thought from cracking her in two. She leant over and kissed both her sleeping bedfellows on their foreheads before standing and leaving the classroom.

Moments later she found herself running along the cliff side, the moon far out to sea on her right, the cold night air whipping the smell of hot salt against her face. She hadn’t planned a destination, but in her heart she knew where her feet were taking her, and she saw it as she reached the top of the hill; the Owl House, its great stained-glass window gleaming in the moonlight. Luz raced inside.

The living room was as cluttered as she remembered. Unfinished homework lay on the couch, the ink on its pages still fresh. Eda would probably be curled up in the nest in her room, or maybe out fetching the teeth and guts of some creature or other to use in a potion. Luz looked around at the flames burning in the fireplace and on the candles strewn across the room, at the wanted poster proudly displayed on the wall, at the engraving of a huge, terrifying bird above the door. Now she was home.

She grabbed Eda’s staff from where it was leant against the wall and stood with it at her side, remembering how she’d felt as a girl coming here for the first time, the excitement of realising she could learn magic. Images flashed about her of her adventures, her discoveries, of falling in love. Surely it had been all she’d ever wanted.

But then the images disappeared and so did the house, its enigmatic clutter shrinking back into her memory, its light fading away into the gloom of the night. Luz was left to stand alone in the old, burnt ruin that had sat here for years, her hands empty. Trees rustled in the dark outside the glassless windows; Hooty might still be among them somewhere, Luz remembered. Eda had turned him into a living, dumb owl when she’d rescued him from the fire. Maybe he’d found the Bat Queen.

‘Our old home is gone too.’

Luz turned and saw Lilith sat on the rubble that made up the outer wall. Her eyes were just as red and just as tired.

‘Our parents weren’t what you’d call sentimental,’ the pale woman continued as she stood and stepped inside what had once been the living room.

More mysteries. So many things Luz could no longer ask the ever-cryptic witch. She looked back round at the remains of the house and laid a hand on the scorch marks that gashed the walls. The burnt smell had never left this place.

‘Everything’s falling apart,’ she whispered. ‘Why is every good thing being burnt away?’

‘No reason,’ Lilith replied sadly. ‘There’s no pattern, no price to pay for our happy memories. The world will just turn as it will.’

‘What do we do now?’ Luz asked quietly, desperately, and the older woman’s hand came to her shoulder from behind.

‘What she would do. Keep on fighting. Make change happen.’

Luz looked over at Lilith, and saw the older woman’s bottom lip wobbling; the strength of her words was masking a shattered core. Luz pulled her into a hug and Lilith began to weep into her shoulder.

‘ _I should have protected her_...’ she sobbed. ‘ _I was her big sister, I should have protected her_...’

‘No Lilith,’ Luz rubbed her hand comfortingly over the witch’s back, even as her eyes set into a glare directed out across the Isles. ‘There’s only one person to blame for this.’

* * *

She’d had to do it, to protect her people. Her duty was to take on the burden of decision so that everyone else could live in safety, she’d known that when she took the throne. It was an unpleasant job, horrible even, but that’s why it needed someone with the stomach for it.

She had to protect them. She had to protect them.

…Eda had looked so scared.

Amity vomited again into the basin which was being held out for her, her back heaving with each vocal retch.

When she was finished, the Empress of the Boiling Isles steadied her breathing and waved away the Abomination she had summoned, which turned obediently and left her bedchamber to dispose of the basin’s contents. Amity remained sat up in her bed, letting the breeze from the balcony cool the sweat on her face. Her mind turned to the words her parents had instilled in her as a child – _strength in all things_. It had been painful having to try and live up to that, but she could now see what they had been trying to teach her. Power came with a price, and that price could only be borne by strong shoulders.

She lay her head back down on the damp pillow, pushing Eda’s face out of her mind, but it was just replaced with a different one and her stomach twisted further. Amity had always thought that one day she and Luz would see eye to eye again, that the other woman would come to understand what she was trying to do. That was never going to happen now. Not after what Luz had said, and what Amity had done. All she could do was go forward and continue with her campaign. Keep the Boiling Isles safe.

Empress Blight curled up alone in her bed as she cried.

* * *

The sun was starting to rise by the time Luz and Lilith got back to the school. As they approached the courtyard, Luz saw a small grey shape stood by one of the pillars at the front of the building. King was looking up at something at the top of the pillar, and when they’d gotten close enough Luz noticed that he was holding Eda’s staff, and that Owlbert was missing from its top.

‘Come on, get down!’ he was calling upwards.

When the two women reached him, Luz followed the demon’s gaze and saw Owlbert on a stone beam under the roof. The small bird hissed down at King.

‘Hey, don’t take that tone with me!’ King scolded. He looked over at Luz and shook his head. ‘He won’t stay on the staff. I don’t think he understands what happened to Eda.’

Luz glanced at Lilith, who nodded. The human got onto the witch’s back and she approached the pillar, gripping her supernaturally strong fingers into its vertical indentations, and clambered up it. When they reached the top, Luz reached out her hand to Owlbert’s perch.

‘It’s okay,’ she said softly as the owl eyed her warily. After a few more hesitatant moments, Owlbert stepped forward onto the back of Luz’s fingers.

When Lilith had taken them back down to the ground, Luz dropped down from the witch's back and put her other hand to Owlbert’s head, gently stroking him. King came over and held out Eda’s staff to her.

‘Maybe you’ll have more luck getting him to stay on,’ he said.

Luz looked from the staff to the owl she was holding, who was glowering at her. Then she opened her hands.

Owlbert’s expression changed to a quizzical one. Then he took his chance, turned, and flapped away across the courtyard and away over the trees.

King lowered the staff he’d been holding up. ‘He’s just going to keep looking for Eda,’ he said.

‘Then we have to let him.’ Luz replied.

‘He won’t find her. He might not ever come back.’

‘Maybe not.’ Luz watched the owl disappear from sight before she turned and walked into the school.

* * *

The next meeting of the coven took place in Eda’s workshop. They had stood in silence for the first few minutes, none of them knowing how to begin; the one person who would have broken the tension wasn’t there to do it. Then Willow and Gus told the others what they’d seen on the Knee.

‘An army of Abominations and a portal to the human realm…’ Lilith shook her head, appalled.

‘Amity said she was going to enact justice,’ Luz said. ‘But she’s also obsessed with protecting Boiling Isles citizens from humans. A disposable army controlled only by her is the perfect solution.’

‘If she doesn’t _want_ war with the humans, what does she think is going to happen?’ Gus asked.

‘She’s not thinking,’ Luz replied. ‘She just wants to hurt the ones who took away the people she loved.’

‘How do you kn-’

But the look in Luz’s eye answered Gus’ question before he’d finished it.

‘If she does this, it’ll be the end of the Isles,’ Lilith said. ‘Even if the portal is destroyed, the humans will find a way to come to us somehow.’

Luz nodded. ‘We can’t let her attack them.’

‘But how do we stop her?’ Willow asked. ‘Those Abominations were huge, we don’t have anything like enough firepower to take down a whole army of them.’

The silence returned to the group. Then Lilith stood.

‘We’ll need everyone,’ she declared. ‘All our contacts from every town across the whole Titan, and anyone they can persuade to join them.’

The tall, pale witch strode over to a cabinet in the corner, and pulled at the string that hung around her neck. A key attached to it was lifted from under her robes, and Lilith detached it before unlocking the cabinet. She took out her slender, white staff which was stood inside and ran a hand over it before giving it a spin, slamming the base down onto the floor.

‘The Empress has her army,’ she said. ‘Let’s raise one of our own.’

* * *

Amity had begun to keep her staff at her side at all times, never banishing it back into the magical ether where witches kept their belongings until they were needed. She would sit on her throne, her hand gripping it tightly. Some members of her court said it was a reminder to everyone around her of her power and willingness to use it. Others, in far more hushed tones, said that it was a crutch.

She stared down at her advisors from her throne over the dark circles under her eyes, her gaze so fixed as to be almost statuesque. She suddenly stood, cutting off what the other demons had been saying, and came down the steps of the throne’s platform, tapping the base of her staff lightly against each step as she did so. She landed her finger on the map that had been spread over the table.

‘Here,’ she declared.

‘But Empress,’ her chief advisor protested. ‘There’s been no report of any human activity there.’

‘I have given my command,’ she intoned, and turned to stride back to her throne. _Let my heart be hardened_ , she asked of herself as she took her seat again, and wrapped her fingers even tighter around her staff. It was time to send a message.

* * *

The atmosphere in Bonesborough was a little more relaxed in the daylight hours, and children played out on the cobblestones of the street under the afternoon sun. Parents watched them from windows and doorways, partly protectively, but also to make the most of the sight of the young demons happily forgetting the state of the Isles.

Then the sound of tramping feet came from round the corner.

A platoon of white-robed Imperial soldiers marched down the street, making no sign that they would move around the children. Parents quickly ushered the witchlings and other spawn inside as the platoon passed. It was still hours before curfew, but these soldiers appeared to be here for a different purpose. Whatever had happened, the Empress must be looking to make an impression.

One of the soldiers stopped and looked through a window at a scared spider-faced family peeking out. The soldier lowered his masked eyes from the two parents to the child they were wrapping their arms around; the child was clutching a toy of a human vehicle.

The door to the house was broken down and a squadron burst in. The family’s shrieks of fright didn’t deter the soldiers from smashing their spears against the shelves and furniture, stabbing their weapons into the walls to try and find any cavities or hiding places. The family huddled in a corner, cowering, but one of the soldiers approached them and took hold of the toy in the spider-child’s four hands. The child strained to hold onto it, but the soldier grabbed them by their shirt, yanking them away from their parents who cried out in fear. The soldier held out their spear towards them and charged a bright bolt at its tip.

Then there was a clang, and the masked intruder fell to the floor.

The spider family looked up at the spot where the soldier had just been looming over them; a human woman stood holding a sword with a glowing, golden shield projecting out from it.

She held out her hand to the family. ‘Come on, we can take you somewhere safe.’

After Luz had glanced out of the door, they all rushed out of the house. Further along Willow and Gus were ushering other families from homes that had been set alight with flames. The smoke was becoming a dark filter over the sunny sky, but Luz could still make out the landmark that had caused Amity to target this particular corner of the town. The human stared grimly over at the demon church where the two of them had once said their vows to each other, as it was enveloped by fire.


	6. Chapter 6

The military presence across the isles had increased dramatically. More demons flocked to the rebellious coven based at Hexside as the regime got more and more brutal, but it was becoming harder for them to operate with all the extra vigilance. Many of the newcomers pledged their magic and strength, but others were just civilians who had been displaced. The more the coven grew, the clearer it was that Hexside was no longer the place for those unable to join the fight.

Luz marched ahead of the throng as they made their way through the valley. Word had come back from St Epiderm that they were willing to take in their non-combatants, so humans and demons alike had packed up to leave Bonesborough, trickling out a few at a time so as to get through the patrols. Now they were walking together under the midday sun, any conversation cautiously whispered to each other.

The human woman looked up to see Willow flying back to them on her staff, dropping to the ground with a worried look in her eye.

‘There’s a camp up ahead,’ she said. ‘We’ll have to detour.’

Luz nodded, turned, and gestured to the procession to take a side-channel in the valley. A couple of witches from the rear guard came forward to protect the front of the group as they headed down the other passage, but then Luz walked on down the path they’d originally been on.

‘Luz?’ Willow asked, confused, and followed her.

Rounding a bend, the pair crouched behind a rocky outcrop and peeked out at the small camp ahead. There were four or five soldiers, and Luz could see furs amongst their baggage even though they were now wearing lighter cloaks; the group looked like they’d stopped on their way back from the Knee.

‘Take out the ones on the right before they can signal for help,’ Luz whispered. ‘I’ll take the others.’

‘Luz, we don’t have to fight them!’ Willow hissed, but the human was already sprinting towards the camp. Willow quickly summoned roots from under the ground, and the thick tendrils whipped up through the top layer of soil, wrapping around the three armed soldiers. The other two turned their masked faces just as Luz reached them, and she smacked the side of her blade into the head of the first. The blunt impact made him topple to the ground while the other fumbled to grab their staff. Luz summoned the shield on her sword and swung it again; the second soldier was also knocked to the ground, but she didn’t stop. She bashed the sword’s glowing projection down against the soldier’s mask again, and again, and again.

‘Luz, stop!’

But the human ignored Willow’s cry and kept hitting her fallen enemy, letting out an enraged yell as she did so.

‘LUZ!’

She felt a hand grip her shoulder and spun around, her sword raised and her eyes wild.

Willow was giving her an alarmed stare. ‘ _Cool off_ ,’ she ordered.

Luz glanced back at the soldier she had been beating. He groaned and shifted on the ground, but stayed down. Luz snarled with frustration, but sheathed her sword and strode agitatedly away from her now-unconscious enemies. She sunk down to sit and lean against the firm side of one of the tents, still breathing heavily.

Willow walked over. ‘I know you’re in pain,' she said carefully, 'but if you’re going to be out protecting people then you have to keep it together. We can find other ways for you to let your feelings out.’

Luz shook her head. ‘That wouldn’t be helpful.’

‘What do you mean?’ Willow frowned.

‘I have to be angry right now,’ Luz replied. She looked up at the Imperial sigil on the flag that flew above the tent. ‘Because I know what has to happen next.’

* * *

Imperial rule on the Boiling Isles was harsher than it had ever been, and yet seemed as chaotic as the so-called Savage Ages. Even those who had once supported Emperor Belos’s rule could see that this was no longer order - it was madness. More and more made commitments to join the uprising when it came, and the only question left to be decided was when.

The decision ended up being made for them. Willow and Gus had been sent on another recon mission to the Knee to try and gauge what timeframe they had to work with. But when they got back they reported that the portal had been moved out of the factory onto the snowy plains of the mountain, with only the final few struts needing to be attached.

They had run out of time.

* * *

Golden light filtered through the thin, magic-filled atmosphere of the Knee and burst into rays of contrasting colours. Amity watched the sun go down from the mountain plain; this truly was the most enchanting spot in the whole of the Boiling Isles. She wasn’t dressed in furs like the last time she was here, this time she wore a white, militaristic jacket, matching white trousers and boots, and a short white cloak with purple lining that reached her waist. She would be the one leading her army into battle – if there was one face the humans would remember from this day, it would be the face of a Blight.

A small escort was stood a short distance behind her, which included Boscha and Skara – whose job would be to destroy the portal when the time came – a handful of guards, and Warden Baal. The hulking demon had joined the exclusive-looking group without invitation as they left the castle, but the Empress hadn’t challenged him. She was no longer concerned with the goings-on of her Empire; everything in the last three years had been leading to this night.

The sun finally dipped below the horizon and the Empress turned to face her troops, the dregs of the mountain's power still echoing through her blood from when she had summoned them. Dozens of rows of huge Abominations stood in formation, their identical faces grimacing back at her. She turned back around and looked up at the giant portal, its huge metal ring filled with a white haze, and dropped her eyes to the wide steps leading up to its base from the snow-covered ground. The moment had finally come.

Amity lifted her staff, pointing it forward, and marched. The sound of hundreds of wet feet tramping on wet snow followed her, and she braced herself as she reached the bottom step.

But she stopped as the portal’s white haze flickered and died, leaving an empty hole looking out onto the rest of the mountain. A small face looked up from the bottom of the ring, holding some torn cables in its bony mouth.

Amity followed the little creature with her eyes as he scampered away, his dark grey fur standing out against the snow. He reached the feet of a figure stood some way off and clambered up their legs and cloak to clutch at their shoulder.

Luz looked back at Amity. The human’s sword was drawn.

Despite the dim moonlight, Amity could see every detail on the other woman’s tan face, and recognised the same wounds to the soul in her eyes. It seemed they were both here for the same thing tonight.

‘Do you really want to do this?’ Amity asked. She’d not spoken loudly, but the silence of the mountain carried her words clearly.

‘Yes.’ Luz brought both hands to the hilt of her sword and raised it. ‘We do.’

The silence was broken by a rumble of running feet, and over the hill behind Luz charged an army. Witches, demons, animals, all sounding a great roar of rebellion. Some flew on staffs above those on foot, and a pair of mounted Slitherbeasts came up at the back, bellowing.

Amity watched the swarm of traitors approaching, and her blood began to boil as much as the seas that surrounded their islands. These rebels were determined to put their fellow demons in danger, and there was only one way to deal with a threat like them.

The Empress pointed her staff out towards them and gave an enraged yell. Boscha, Skara and the soldiers sped toward the oncoming force, and the Abominations also turned towards their new enemies and lurched forward into a jog, their long legs quickly taking them to the first line of attackers.

Magical bolts and beams shot through the glutinous purple bodies, but didn’t stop them. Demons were wetly smacked aside and out of the air, their staffs snatched out of their hands and broken in two. One witch summoned their own Abomination, but the Empress’s giants ripped the smaller one apart. Viney galloped her Slitherbeast through a line of purple figures and splattered them into puddles, but they just rose back up and took their form again.

The only one who was having any success taking them down was Lilith. She flew over the battlefield and slammed her ivory-white staff into the ground; the impact made the slimy enemies around her disintegrate into a wave of purple liquid that rippled out from her in a circle. She blasted cold blue lightning at the heads that emerged back up from the remaining pools around her. One determined Abomination reached an arm onto the ground, trying to pull itself up from the sludge, but Lilith fired an ongoing blast at it and it blackened and charred as the dark-haired witch screamed.

Willow was raising her hands, and huge roots burst out of the ground through the snow, shooting up towards Boscha who was hovering over her in the sky. The pink-haired triclops fired down a stream of flame from her hands, burning up the vegetation before it could reach her. She shot more bursts of fire at Willow, who summoned more roots from the ground around her to block each blast. The witch on the ground managed to flick the arm of one root up to Boscha’s leg, and yanked her down with a crash. Boscha jumped up, snarling with rage, the blue scar on her cheek glinting with the light of the spells being cast all around them. She lit another fireball in her hand.

The rebels’ wool-covered van suddenly sped into the Sorceress, sending her flying. As it jolted to a stop, Willow saw Camila in the driver’s seat, seeming a little surprised at what she had just done.

‘Thanks!’ Willow called, and glanced at the back of the van. ‘Some of your wool’s gone.’

‘No, I took that bit off.’ Camila replied through the open window. ‘It had a rude picture on it.’

They both turned at the sound of a yell to see Skara sprinting towards them, screaming with fury. As she reached them Camila quickly opened the van door and slammed it into the second Sorceress, who collapsed unconscious to the floor.

Across the plain, Gus was firing bolts from his hands in all directions, and spotted a muscular, gold-masked shape speeding towards him.

‘ _YOU!_ ’ it cried.

Gus quickly summoned a row of duplicates, but they dissipated as a huge fist grabbed him and threw him to the ground.

‘I’ve been waiting a long time for this,’ Warden Baal growled.

‘Do we know each other?’ Gus frowned.

Baal retracted his head slightly in surprise and removed his mask. ‘It’s me, Warden B-‘

But Gus had punched the demon in his exposed, fleshy maw, knocking him aside. Baal snarled and rounded on Gus again, grabbing him by the back of his cowl and lifting him up. But Gus was calmly smiling at him.

‘ _What?’_ Baal growled.

‘Nothing, you’ve got me.’

Baal looked around, but couldn’t see any other Gus than the one dangling from his hand.

‘WHAT’S THE TRICK? _’_ he shouted.

‘There’s no trick, you’ve got me,’ Gus grinned.

Baal’s breaths got quicker and heavier, and he flung Gus away. He started swinging his fists around the empty space around them.

‘ _WHERE ARE YOU?!’_ he roared, smacking aside an Abomination that had wandered into his path. Gus picked himself up from where he’d landed, shaking his head at the wildly swinging Warden before running off back into the battle.

Amity watched everything from the bottom step of the still-defunct portal. The enemy were putting up strong resistance, but her creations were holding the line even as they were cut apart and reformed. Soon the opposing force would tire, and they could press the advantage.

She noticed a face watching her from amongst the battle; Luz was walking forward through the fighting, her eyes fixed on the Empress. King was still on her shoulder, but then he leapt off to scrabble at an Abomination that was looming over a fallen demon. Another purple shape made a swipe towards Luz, but she sliced it in half with her sword, not breaking her stride.

Amity looked across at the woman she'd once entrusted her now-shattered heart to, who had left her and betrayed her, who was now sabotaging her only chance to gain some peace. The Empress lifted her staff and ran forward with a roar.

Luz also broke into a run and the magical shield sprang up from her sword, reflecting the first bolt that Amity fired. The shield retracted again and Luz swung; Amity ducked under the blade and brought up her staff to block the next swing. They strained their weapons against each other before Amity swung her fist into Luz’s face with a furious cry. The human was knocked away and down to the ground, but pointed her sword back at her opponent – a swathe of vines shot out from its point, briefly entangling the Empress before she cut through them with a glowing line swiped by her finger. She ran to where Luz was lying in the snow, kicked the sword out of her hand, lifted up her staff vertically and brought it down.

The staff’s base landed directly onto the blade’s moving cog, smashing it to pieces.

Luz sprang up with an angry yell and tackled Amity to the ground. They grappled over her staff before Luz was thrown off by Amity’s superior strength. Luz grabbed her now-depowered sword from the floor and they sparred frantically. The tip of the Empress’s staff glowed brighter and brighter as she swung it, and Luz forced it down with her blade just as a blast shot out and hit the ground between them, launching both women away from each other.

Amity got to her feet. She and Luz were now stood apart, separate from the rest of the battle. The Abominations were starting to force their way through the rebellion’s ranks, there were no more staffs in the air, and one of the Slitherbeasts lay still, slain. Amity spotted Willow being surrounded by the purple giants who were melting into a pool around her legs, swirling up and enveloping her. The Empress looked back to Luz victoriously. The human stood with her sword at her side, panting.

‘Please!’ she called out. ‘Stop!’

Amity felt her anger spike again and lifted her staff up. Luz had started this fight, she wouldn’t get any mercy now. Seeing the other woman's pose, Luz lifted her own sword and slid one foot out in front of her, turning her shoulder forward.

Amity stared. She recognised the stance; it was the signature one from the book series they had read together when they were young, that they had practised with each other in playful duels. Luz would lean one side forward, feint to the right, and then go left.

The Empress lit a deadly-sharp flame on her staff. If at some level the human was still being driven by the fantasies of her youth, then they would be her downfall. The pale witch charged, her bared fangs glistening under the moon, and just as she reached Luz she jumped to the side.

Amity felt her momentum suddenly yanked back and her breath forced from her lungs. A sharp pain shot through her abdomen where the sword had impaled her.

Luz had gone right.

Both women stood there for a moment, together, one panting heavily while the other struggled for breath. Then Luz withdrew the sword and Amity collapsed to the ground. She knew she would now bleed out in minutes; it had almost been the kind thing to do. Her vision started to fade in and out, and then she felt a hand under her head and saw Luz’s face over hers.

The human was crying. Amity instinctively lifted her hand to the brown cheek above her. _Don’t cry,_ she thought. Everything else slipped away, their duel, the battle, everything they’d done to each other. All she wanted was for Luz to stop crying.

‘I just wanted them back…’ Amity breathed, struggling to focus her eyes.

Luz nodded through her tears. ‘I know.’

‘But… I wanted you back too.’

Then Amity’s hand fell from Luz’s face and hit the slush with a wet thud.

* * *

Willow’s head burst back up from the thick sludge and she gasped for breath. She flailed her arms and pulled herself out of the risen pool she had been trapped in, whirling around to face the next enemy – but there wasn’t one. The liquefied Abominations which had been twisting themselves around her had now sunk into a puddle on the ground.

All around the battlefield other Abominations were collapsing, falling in mid-swing to splash onto the now mud-mixed snow, and soon an ankle-deep purple river was flowing all around the confused rebels. Willow caught Lilith’s eye, who still had her staff raised and looked just as surprised.

After a moment of hesitation, a very short cheer sounded out before they all registered the other, agonised noise. All eyes looked to the space near the inactive portal, and at the figure cradling a body in front of it.

In amongst the victors, Boscha got to her feet and glanced around to see Skara doing the same. None of the other Imperials were getting up. The two sorceresses followed the gaze of the crowd, before Boscha turned and saw Lilith watching her. The older witch lit a threatening bolt on her staff, and Boscha and Skara raced away into the trees.

Those that remained on the battlefield stayed silent as Luz’s wails echoed around the mountain.


	7. Chapter 7

Luz grunted as she pushed the stone slab back into place on top of the sarcophagus, and the dank smell in the air filled her nose as she caught her breath. She’d had to smuggle her bound and wrapped load out to the crypt as there were some who thought that the Empress shouldn’t have a proper burial. But Luz knew that this was the best chance she could give herself of ever sleeping again. The human’s eyes moved from the stone casket she’d just sealed to the two others that lay beside it; Amity had finally been reunited with her siblings.

Luz’s hand lay on the stone in front of her. She didn’t know how long it took for her to work up the strength to let go, but when she did she turned and walked quickly out of the tomb, not daring to look back.

* * *

Lilith had been the obvious choice to everyone to manage the transfer of power, both for having led the movement that toppled the Empress, and also for her past experience in Belos’s regime, which appealed to the traditionalist demon demographics. Currently she was an interim president while a new government was formed, but it seemed likely that she would be supported to keep that position. Although it had been a coup, there was no talk of her adopting the title of ‘Empress’ and governors were being appointed in each town, meaning that this would be the most egalitarian administration the Boiling Isles had ever seen. There were some in powerful positions who were resisting the change, and no-one had managed to find Boscha and Skara. But the majority of the militia were glad to no longer be dividing and breaking up demon families and communities, so none of the holdouts kept their power for long.

But the biggest reason behind the relatively smooth transition was that the divisive human element was finally being removed from the picture.

* * *

Gus and Willow stood alone in the school hall amongst the few remaining blankets and discarded belongings that still littered the floor. Apart from the very small number who had opted to permanently stay on the Boiling Isles, the last of the humans had just been ferried up to the portal on the Knee in the flying longboats. Soon it would be shut down, dismantled and magically erased from existence. Their two worlds would be entirely separate again, as they should be.

‘It’s weird to be thinking of this as a school again,’ Gus said.

Willow nodded. ‘Doesn’t seem like the same place as when we were kids.’

They were silent for a moment, drinking in the last vapours of the sense of home they’d built in this place, whatever harrowing circumstances that had been in. Then their silence was broken by the sound of the doors opening, and they both turned to see Luz giving them a tired nod as she entered the hall.

‘Hi guys’, she said, still hugging her cloak to herself from the lingering cold of the mountain.

‘Hey,’ Willow smiled. ‘Where’s your mom?’

‘She uh...’ Luz dropped her gaze. ‘She went back with the last group. There were some patients she wanted to make sure got treated okay, and… and I think she just had to get out. She said to tell you both that you were two of the few good things about this place.’

‘Oh,’ Willow’s heart ached for the woman in front of her. ‘Oh, Luz, I’m so sorry.’

Luz shrugged. ‘It’s OK, really.’

‘But after we destroy the portal, you’ll never see her again. Doesn’t that-'

Willow’s heart suddenly sank as she realised she’d misread why Luz still wasn’t meeting their gaze. She glanced at Gus, who had tears in his eyes, having come to the same realisation; it wasn’t her mother who Luz would never be seeing again.

The human finally looked up at her friends, the years of torment showing on her face. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘But… I can’t stay here anymore. I just can’t.’

Willow nodded. ‘Yeah. I get it,’ she said quietly.

There was a silence. Then Luz pulled the two witches into a tight hug, and they clutched her back. She kissed both of them on the head, and they stood in their embrace in the middle of the hall.

* * *

Luz had said all her goodbyes and relived her memories one final time. Although every conversation had been tearful, only Lilith had made any attempt to try and change her mind, and it had been the obligatory request of a head of state not wanting to lose a valuable asset. But when Luz had politely refused, Lilith had seen the emotional scars on her face as plain as physical ones, and wished her all the good will in two worlds on her journey to heal.

King, however, had been furious, and Luz had spent the entire day searching for him after he had run off. She wished she could stay just until she found him and made a better farewell. But word from the returnees could already be spreading, and every minute the portal still existed was a threat to humans and demons alike. Luz had forced herself to accept that she couldn’t end all of her friendships here peaceably, and had left King a letter.

She was now stood by the crater where Eda had died, her sword implanted in the ground in front of it. The rumblings of the geysers were now silent as the pipes sucking the energy from the mountain had all been shut down and removed, returning balance to the area. Luz took a quivering breath; she knew that the second she started to speak a crashing wave of emotion would envelop her, but also knew that this was her last chance to get any closure.

‘I’ve got to go, Eda,’ she began, swallowing against the choke in her throat. ‘But I will always remember you. You’ve taught me so much…’ Her voice began to break and she had to take another shaking breath before she could continue. ‘…I know you said everything changes, but you never did. Through everything, you stayed the same funny, crazy, incredible person you’ve always been. Whatever else has happened, I’ll never forget you. I love you, Eda.’

And with those final words, Luz couldn’t hold back the tears any longer and fell to her knees. As she sobbed, her hands gripped the hilt of her sword that was sticking out of the snow, the only thing around she could hold onto. After the spasms rocking her body finally stopped, Luz steadied her breathing and raised her head. The cold air was starting to burn on her cheeks, but she couldn’t bring herself to stand.

Then she heard the hoot of an owl in the trees nearby.

Luz wiped her eyes and looked over. Owlbert was perched in a tree, and when he saw her looking he gave a couple of tugs on the branch with his feet.

The human watched him for a moment before standing and walking over. She ran her finger over his small, feathery head one last time before compliantly snapping the branch off the tree at its base. Owlbert swooped over to the sword and perched its hilt as Luz returned to it. She stuck the point of the branch into the snow next to the sword, digging it as far into the ground beneath as she could. Then she stepped back and Owlbert hopped off the sword onto the top of the branch.

Luz gave him a sad smile. ‘Bye, buddy,’ she said.

Owlbert hooted in reply. Then his feathers turned back to wood, and he was still.

Luz took one final look at the two markers in front of the crater, before turning and walking away. She was as ready as she was ever going to be.

* * *

The chill was seeping in more and more every minute she stood out in the snow, which was probably a good thing. It would force her through the portal sooner or later.

Luz’s large backpack was starting to make her back ache. She’d managed to gather as many of her belongings as she could find from over a decade of back and forth between the human and demon realms. But every keepsake from the Boiling Isles she’d considered had eventually been put aside, each positive memory they held now accompanied by a reminder of tragedy and pain. It was time to let it all go.

The swirling white vortex of the portal sounded out what could almost be an electric hum. Luz’s friends had all agreed to let her do this alone, as she was certain she wouldn’t be able to cope with any more goodbyes. The only others around were a couple of unfamiliar witches who were working on the structure, preparing it to be dismantled once she was through. Luz took a final breath of the cold air and started walking towards the steps.

But as her foot hit the first one, it slipped on the icy surface and she tumbled forward, having to throw her hands out to catch herself.

‘ _Weh!’_

Luz froze; the voice had come from inside her backpack. She remained still, crouched forward on the steps, listening for any other noise, but whatever creature had stowed away with her things seemed to be holding its breath.

A small smile slowly crept over Luz’s face, and she got back to her feet and continued up the steps, pretending that she hadn’t heard anything. When she reached the top of the platform, she turned for one final look at the view from the Knee.

The great, beautiful corpse of the Titan spread out for miles and miles, the central river valley that separated most of the Isles snaking up from the bay between the legs up towards the distant horned skull. Clouds drifted between the mountainous spikes of the ribs that erupted from the land, and Luz could just about make out some of the larger settlements on the land masses that coated the immense skeleton. She pictured her friends working hard to rebuild the world they’d rescued, and imagined the lives they would live. And for the first time in many years, Luz consciously registered the rich, signature smell of the Isles that had been hard to get used to at first, but had soon become like background noise to her. She inhaled deeply, savouring the scent, and listened to the distant cries of strange beasts she would never see the likes of again.

Having drunk her fill, Luz turned and walked through the portal, leaving the Boiling Isles behind.


End file.
